For businesses on GoHighLevel or a site builder
A GoHighLevel alternative: a website your business owns
If your website, contacts and phone number sit inside an agency's HighLevel account, it is worth knowing what happens when that account stops.
Plenty of small businesses got their website as part of a monthly “lead system” from a marketing agency. Often that system runs on HighLevel (also sold as GoHighLevel). It works, and for some businesses it is the right tool. The catch is that the website, the contact list and sometimes the business phone number live in an account the business does not hold.
This page sets out what HighLevel's own help center says about cancellation, what HighLevel is good at, and two ways to put your website in your own name: keep HighLevel behind it, or move everything across.
What HighLevel says happens when an account is canceled
HighLevel publishes a help article called “What happens to your data when you cancel your HighLevel Subscription?” These lines are quoted from it as written.
- Automations
- “Workflows and automations will stop functioning.”
- Funnels
- “All funnels and related data will no longer be accessible.”
- Contacts
- “All saved contact data will no longer be accessible.”
- Phone numbers
- “Phone numbers and A2P registrations will be deleted 14 days after cancellation.”
“HighLevel does not maintain backups of purged account data, and HighLevel teams cannot override or reverse the deletion process.”
The timeline in that article
- Day 0Sub-accounts lose access to contacts, conversations, calendars and funnels. Workflows and automations stop.
- Day 14Phone numbers and A2P registrations are deleted. You are charged for the numbers until then.
- Day 90If the account is not reactivated, the agency account, its sub-accounts and their data are permanently deleted.
The same article says the account can be reactivated during those 90 days, and that you can “consider using the Pause Account Feature for $27/month to keep your data active” if the break is temporary. Its advice before canceling is plain: “export or download any important data you want to keep.”
One detail matters for most small businesses. The article is written for the person who holds the HighLevel account, and in an agency setup that is usually the agency. Your business is a sub-account inside it. So the real question is what happens to your site and your data if the agency cancels, closes, or you stop paying them, and only the agency can answer that.
What HighLevel does well
It is a lot of software for the money. One login covers a CRM, two-way texting, calendars, review requests, automations and a funnel and website builder, and an agency can have it running in days. If your business mainly needs fast follow-up on new leads and your setup is doing that, it is a fair reason to stay.
Where it is weaker is the website. Pages are made in the platform's page builder and hosted on the platform, so the design and the pages themselves live in an account that someone else may control. That is the part we fix.
Two ways to own your website
Option 1
Keep HighLevel, own the site
We design and build your public website in code you own, on your domain. Its forms and booking send leads into your HighLevel account, so your pipelines and automations keep running. If you ever leave HighLevel, the website stays where it is.
Option 2
Move everything into your name
A new custom website plus the lead tools most businesses use HighLevel for, set up on accounts registered to your business. Your contacts come with you, and the phone number moves when it can.
What it costs
Custom website, designed for your business
Designed and built from scratch by the studio, with immersive 3D if it suits your brand. Fast on phones, written to be found on Google, on your domain.
$3,200
Hosting, maintenance and the lead tools
Updates, backups and fixes, plus everything below.
$150 /month
Missed-call text-back
When you can't pick up, the caller gets a text from your business number so the conversation doesn't go to the next name on Google.
Review requests
A short text after a visit or a job with a link to your Google review page.
Chat on your site
A chat assistant that answers questions about your business and passes real leads to you.
One lead inbox
Forms, chats, missed calls and texts land in one place, with the page each lead came from.
Everything is in your business's name: the domain, the website code, your data and your phone number.
Phone and text carrier usage is billed at cost.
How a move works, in order
- 01
Find out what you own
Domain registrar, the HighLevel account (yours or your agency's), the phone number and its carrier, Google Business Profile, analytics. We write it down with you so nothing is a surprise later.
- 02
Export your contacts
HighLevel exports contacts as a CSV file. Its help center notes that only admin users can export, and that the file does not include automation history such as past emails and SMS logs. If you are on an agency's account, ask them for the export or for admin access.
- 03
Build the new site on a private link
We design and build the site, set up the lead tools and import your contacts. You check everything on a private link while your current setup keeps running.
- 04
Move the phone number first
Porting depends on who holds the number and which carrier it is on, so we check it case by case. It moves before anything is canceled, because HighLevel deletes numbers 14 days after cancellation.
- 05
Point the domain and go live
Your domain switches to the new site. Forms, calls and texts are tested end to end.
- 06
Then cancel, if you still want to
Only after the new setup has been running for a while. If HighLevel is working as your CRM, you can keep it.
Contact export details from HighLevel's contacts export help article.
Free check: what do you own?
Five questions worth answering before you sign anything, with us or anyone else:
- Whose name is your domain registered in, and can you log in to the registrar yourself?
- If your website disappeared tomorrow, could anyone hand you a copy of it?
- Can you export your own contacts, or do you have to ask someone?
- Who is your business phone number registered to, and which carrier is it on?
- Who has owner access to your Google Business Profile?
Run the free website score on your current site, then book a call and we'll go through the answers with you.
Questions people ask before leaving GoHighLevel
Can I leave GoHighLevel?
Yes. If you hold the HighLevel account, HighLevel's help center explains what cancellation does and gives a 90-day window to reactivate. If your business is a sub-account under an agency, the agency controls that account, so the first step is asking them for admin access or a full export. We plan the move so your new site and lead tools are live before anything is turned off.
Will I lose my contacts?
Not if you export them first. HighLevel lets admin users export contacts to a CSV file. Its help article says the export does not include automation history such as past emails and SMS logs, so save anything you need from those conversations before you cancel. We import the CSV into your new lead inbox, or leave it in HighLevel if you keep it as your CRM.
Can I keep my phone number?
Often, but it depends on who the number is registered to and which carrier it is on, so we check it case by case before anything is canceled. HighLevel's help article says phone numbers and A2P registrations are deleted 14 days after cancellation, which is why the number always moves first.
Can I keep HighLevel as my CRM and just own the website?
Yes. We build the public website in code you own, on your domain, and connect its forms to your HighLevel account so your pipelines and automations keep working. If you leave HighLevel later, the website does not have to move.
What does it cost?
$3,200 for a custom-designed website, including immersive 3D if it suits your business. Then $150 a month for hosting, maintenance and the lead tools: missed-call text-back, review requests, a chat assistant on your site and one inbox for every lead. Phone and text carrier usage is billed at cost.
What do I own at the end?
The domain, the website code, your contact and lead data, and your phone number, all in your business's name. Your Google reviews stay on your Google Business Profile, which is yours as well.